Utility cables are often buried beneath the earth to hide the cables and to protect them from damage, especially in residential or business areas. Buried utility cables, however, suffer many drawbacks. For example, various utility providers (such as electric, telephone and television providers) often work independently and bury their respective cables in separate locations. Such non-uniform burying of cables may lead to confusion regarding utility company rights of way and creates the danger of cables being severed or damaged during excavation by homeowners, developers, or other utility providers. If the cables are severed or otherwise damaged, repair or replacement requires the costly and time-consuming process of digging up of the buried cables. Furthermore, cables which are buried in the earth must be manufactured with relatively expensive insulation to protect the cables against moisture, heat, and damage from rodents.
To address some of the problems associated with exposed, buried cables, cable trenching systems have been developed to enclose the buried cables in a conduit. Previous trenching systems have typically been made from precast sections of concrete and are thus very heavy and costly compared to other available structural materials. Some trenching systems have been designed to function additionally as sidewalk sections to take advantage of their concrete structure. These precast concrete systems are installed into excavated trenches where nonuniform footing makes them susceptible to poor fit at the joints, which in turn may lead to rocking or shifting of the sidewalk sections.
Many of the previous trenching systems are designed to have only a single compartment for accommodating cables. As such, these prior art systems are not designed to handle incompatible cables which should be kept separate, such as electric cables and telephone or television cables. These incompatible cables must be kept separate due to the high voltage carried by electric cables which may interfere with the telephone or television cables, or create a hazardous environment for telephone or television utility employees who must access the trenching system.
For at least these reasons, there is a need for an improved utility trenching system for routing and protecting incompatible utility cables within a single unitary structure which is relatively lightweight and inexpensive compared to prior cable trenching systems.